Semiotic resource

Sean P. Smith
Tilburg University
Table of contents

In the study of social semiotics, or how meaning is made through sociocultural context, mode, and the meaning maker, a semiotic resource is any act, utterance, or material that contributes to the communication of meaning. Following the departure from structuralist linguistics, the emphasis on resource instead of sign underscores how meanings are never fixed but rather emerge in relation to the environment and to participants. Like other resources, the meaning of semiotic resources comes about through use, and whomsoever uses them is as important as the meaning they seek to construct, and in what setting they construct it. These contingent factors shape the potential of a semiotic resource, or its capacity to articulate a certain kind of meaning, which is shaped both by how a resource has been used before and how it can be used in the future. The study of social semiotics must therefore attend to both the history of a semiotic resource and to the conditions through which it is, or can be, made meaningful.

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